Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and National Gallery of Art, Vilnius

The exhibition Citynature: Vilnius and Beyond is a showcase for art and scientific research which reflects the city not solely as a man-made creation, but rather as an ecosystem where human activity is in a constant interplay with processes of both an animate and inanimate nature. One of the key elements of the show is an attempt to look closer at Vilnius, the city hosting the exhibition, in an attempt to perceive it not as a closed unit, but as a formation existing in the broader contexts of nature and culture, time and space.

The two-part exhibition will present five new works by Lithuanian and foreign artists, made in collaboration with scientists, in the search for parallels between the city and an anthill, offering a glimpse at the city from the perspective of a bat, viewing robots as members of society, reflecting post-traumatic healing processes common to the community and the individual physical body, and trying to imagine gardening in a cosmic city. Alongside the new works, there will be a display of scientific research spanning recent decades, where issues of urban nature are examined by historians, paleoanthroplogists, archaeologists, botanists, meteorologists and specialists in other fields. Their research will be presented in an accessible and creative form.

Citynature: Vilnius and Beyond. Exhibition view at National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, 2017